Summer Suffering
by anxious.soul
Summary: In which the Avengers go to Tony's Malibu home to laze in the sunshine by the pool... Turns out Tony and water don't mix well.


**Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers **

**Warnings/Tags: Panic Attacks, Domestic Avengers, Head Wounds, Drowning kinda, Not Canon Compliant.**

**My exams have started so FML -first one yesterday and next one on Tuesday, that one _is _going to kill me :(**

**Also, I'm working on a multi-chaptered requested story (won't be uploading until it's more or less complete) and somehow I've managed to write myself into a corner which sucks. But that's something for you all to maybe look forward to in the -hopefully- near future!**

**Finally... I watched Endgame on Sunday -still dead from it- and if you want to talk about it, message me on my tumblr (down at the bottom)**

**Cross-posted on my AO3 with a collage.**

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It was an incredibly warm mid-August day. Not a cloud in sight as the Avengers lazed in the burning sunshine at Tony's Malibu house. This was the fourth day that they'd been staying there due to several (Clint) complaints about being 'trapped' in New York. So… Malibu.

Tony sat under the shade of an umbrella on his tablet. He had red and gold sunglasses on, no top so his arc was out in the open (secretly the other Avengers were happy that Tony trusted them enough to show it off) and he was sporting Captain America swimming trunks (apparently he'd found a company called 'Marvel' that SHIELD had made a deal with alongside Stark Industries -not the point but, Tony had a collection of their clothing that featured the Avengers and was showing off the swimming trunks he had. Yesterday he'd worn Thor ones and the day before bright green Hulk ones. Thor, of course, was proud and pleased…Bruce was rather red with embarrassment that day.

"Really Tony?" Steve sighed as he saw his signature shield on the man's shorts

"I know. I was disappointed they didn't have one with your face on too."

"That's -that's…you -I…" And so a stuttering and red-faced blond walked away in utter embarrassment whilst Tony cackled to himself.

Clint and Thor being the children they were, were having a diving contest and messing about the pool with a ball. Natasha was beside him lounging in the sunshine with her hair up in a bun and a book, she'd be going into the pool once she'd read a few chapters, then she'd come out and continue reading whilst she dried and then back to the pool and so forth. Bruce was on his other side also being shielded by the shade as he read away and made some notes. Steve had just done a perfect dive into the water and was joining the other two in a game of catch in the pool.

**—LINE BREAK—**

All was going well. Then Tony stood up and went to grab some more drinks for him, Natasha and Bruce. Hands cradling two bottles of cool beer and a glass of freshly made lemonade (who knew that the redhead liked to make it). Bruce got the latter and the other two got the alcohol. Or would have.

Concentrating on not dropping the drinks, Tony didn't seem to notice how close he was to the ledge. When he did…it was too late. His next footstep had his foot only half on the ground, he tilted to the left dropping the drinks allowing them to smash all across the ground with a startling crash as he flailed his arms in an attempt to maintain balance. He hit the water and the poolside with a whimper.

Flashes echoed around his head. Water drowning his lungs. Gargled screams. Limbs moving rapidly. Fear pumped through his body. The light from the sun grew darker as he lost energy.

He faintly heard a splash and felt arms grab him, he was too weakened to fight against it. He broke the surface and felt the hard ground beneath him. He sucked in as much air but his breathing became faster and faster. His eyes were wide and unseeing as he found himself back in that cave in Afghanistan being drowned over and over and over again. His hands found his hair and he tugged. His hands moved to his face and sharp, broken nails cut across the flesh. Someone was talking but all he could hear were the foreign voices that had yelled at him in Urdu in that cave.

His world darkened and his eyes shut closed.

**—LINE BREAK—**

The sound of glass shattering on the ground started the team. They watched as Tony teetered towards the water, they winced at the crashing of the water.

Clint's reaction was to chuckle when he saw Tony fall in. The man had been avoiding the water the whole time so personally, he felt that this was karma for not having fun. Thor had a similar line of thought as did Steve. But they weren't able to really see what happened.

Natasha was though. She saw Tony walk to close to the side and knew what would happen. She stood to help him but it was too late. She saw his head smash against the side of the pool and saw the fear in his eyes as he fell. She knew the man had a fear of water. She knew that him falling in wouldn't be good. But she was frozen as she tried to comprehend the situation. It had happened to fast for her -she'd been too involved in her book and due to relaxing, her 'spy-mind' wasn't set in motion. Bruce had seen it all happen to and like her, he knew of Tony's aversion to water.

The two on land stood and rushed to the poolside and those in the pool began to realise that it was no laughing matter. Especially when Tony didn't come up. Then they saw crimson in the water near where the genius should be.

Someone was shouting. Maybe everyone was.

Steve dove under the water and spied Tony sinking pitiful to the bottom, a train of blood seeping into the water from his head. Grabbing the limp body only seemed to make the man come alive again. The blond got smacked in the face several times but it didn't cause any damage. Hoisting Tony up onto land, Natasha bent to do CPR and they watched as Tony's breathing picked up as his eyes saw something only he could see before those whiskey eyes closed and he fell limp once again.

"Ambulance is on its way. ETA five minutes." Bruce murmured cutting through the silence around them.

Those five minutes seemed to last a lifetime. No one knew where to look as they waited. Natasha stayed sat beside Tony pressing a once clean and pure white towel against his rapidly blooding temple. There was something almost hypnotic about the blood that trickled down her arm and mixed into the puddles of water around them.

A siren could be heard. The ambulance had arrived. Only one could go with Tony and no one knew who should.

"Nat…you go. You know enough information about him to fill out the forms." Steve said ever so quietly, worry and exhaustion cloaked his voice, "we'll come in the car and bring some things." The redhead merely nodded and headed towards the ambulance.

**—LINE BREAK—**

"How is he?" Thor asked as he and the others got settled in Tony's room, the genius himself was asleep in the hospital bed with an IV in his arm and a bandage over his temple along with numerous smaller ones on his cheeks and forehead.

"He's fine. He had to get twelve stitches and he lost quite a bit of blood. Though that's normal for head wounds. The doctor said he'd wake up within two hours. But he also managed to scratch his face quite badly. It'll all heal though, without scars."

"Best get comfy then." Bruce murmured.

The silence that fell across the room lasted for an hour as everyone was lost in their thought until Clint broke it.

"Nat…why didn't he -you know- swim out?"

"It's not my place to tell you."

"It isn't…but it is my place to tell."

"Tony!"

"Not so loud please." The wounded man moaned as he pushed himself up and blinked rapidly for a few minutes to focus his vision.

And then…Tony told them about his fear of water. Though, he was still coming down from being dosed up on drugs, so that was really the only reason he shared. He told them how he was waterboarded in Afghanistan and that at first, he couldn't handle any form of water, but slowly he managed to be able to stay in the shower long enough to wash. The only thing he was really scared of was large bodies of water like baths, sometimes deep and big sinks, lakes and the obvious, pools. It was mostly when his head went under that he freaked out, sometimes he didn't mind having a shallow bath or having his legs in the pool. But if he couldn't control the situation, then he had a panic attack like when he fell in.

The Avengers who didn't know were clueless on how to respond, but Tony fell back to sleep, so it was okay. Yet moments later, the group shared a look. One of determination. If they could help it, Tony would never have to be scared by the water.

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**Here's my tumblr if you're interested, it also has the story collages: anxious- - -soul (no spaces between the dashes but sucks and wouldn't allow the dashes without spaces)**

**Anyway,**  
**Thank you for reading,**  
**Hope you enjoyed this,**  
**Please review,**  
**No hate -don't like, don't read**

**Bye~**


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